MLB.com's Carrie Muskat has been covering Major League Baseball since 1981 and is the author of "Banks to Sandberg to Grace: Five Decades of Love and Frustration with the Cubs." You can follow her on Twitter @CarrieMuskat. Here, she blogs about the Cubs.

8/24 2014 All-Star Game at Wrigley? It’s possible

MLB commissioner Bud Selig says playing the 2014 All-Star Game at Wrigley Field to celebrate the ballpark’s 100th anniversary is “appealing” but he was not ready to commit to Chicago as the host for the event. The 2012 All-Star Game will be played in Kansas City and Selig pointed out MLB has yet to reveal where the 2013 game will be held.

“I haven’t even announced ’13 yet, so let me announce ’13 and then we’ll go on from there,” Selig said. “When I first took over in 1992, you had to beg cities to take the All-Star Game. … Now they’re lined up and everybody’s fighting for them.”

Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts has talked to Selig about the possibility of having Wrigley Field host the game for the first time since 1990. Ricketts, whose family purchased the Cubs in October 2009, is beginning his search for a new general manager after dismissing Jim Hendry last Friday. Selig has had conversations with Ricketts about the process.

“He’s young, aggressive, [comes from] a great family,” Selig said of the Ricketts family. “People always said to me, ‘You know, the Cubs need a family owning this club and we need somebody we can identify with.’ We all understand that winning covers up a multitude of sins, someone taught me. I lived through all that myself so I’m well aware of that.

“I think Tom Ricketts and his family are off to an excellent start,” he said. “They have a lot of work to do, they know they have a lot of work to do. He and I have discussed all of this. And as great a franchise as this is, and this is a great franchise — and I don’t say that because I’m here — but there’s no question, Wrigley Field is one of the few places I go where I still get a thrill when I drive up here. Maybe it’s because of my own history.”

Selig said he made his first trip to Wrigley Field in 1944 and joked that the ballpark and neighborhood looked the same. For Wrigley to host the All-Star Game, there is work to do.

“I hope Tom will get the support he needs from all sectors here to make that happen,” Selig said. “This is a franchise that we need to be not only really competitive but economically viable. He’s got his work cut out for him. Is he the right guy to do it? You bet. I’m very confident in that.”

3 Comments

Well, at least Selig had the common sense to comment on the Ricketts’ “excellent start” AFTER Hendry was fired. THAT is the excellent START and maybe even Selig recognizes it being so. How about the Cubs getting juuuuuuuuuuuust a few more All-Stars and a World Series appearance before going for the awesomeness of celebrating ANOTHER 100 year milestone? Enough of the anniversaries and celebrations, this organization needs to keep their eye on the prize instead of being focused on having a good old time at the ballpark despite SUCKING!

i don’t have a good time watching the Cubs suck… i hate it… haven’t gave the Cubs one dime of my money this year…. won’t until I see some smart moves being made… Hendry was one but now we gotta hire the right guy… if we don’t then screw the Cubs… its their last shot with me… so tired of this crap…. as for the stadium look at what the best organization in professional sports, Green Bay Packers, did with their historic field. You think fans are complaining about that stadium and how it lost its historic value? HELL NO!!! Its even better because the players and fans both love it. It has such a great atmosphere. And they are expanding it a little more starting Sept 1… take notes Ricketts… you need it…

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